A digital content player, for example, a digital television or a digital audio player, plays digital content data, which are input from a variety of sources. Broadcasted data may arrive via radio or cable transmission. The digital content player may also host an accessory, such as a digital video disk (DVD) player or a compact disk (CD) player, to play digital content data stored on a nonvolatile memory medium. Typically, a digital content player will include a mechanism to enable a user to remotely control the playing of digital content data.
FIG. 1 shows an example from the prior art of a digital content player interfacing with an accessory for playing prerecorded digital content data. A digital television 10 is connected to a DVD player 12 by a cable 14. A user may control operation of digital television 10 by using a wireless remote control transmitter 16 to send control signals to a wireless remote control receiver 20 affixed onto digital television 10. Similarly, the user may control operation of DVD player 12 by using a second wireless remote control transmitter 22 to send control signals to a wireless remote control receiver 24 affixed on DVD player 12.
Typically, signals from the remote control transmitter for a digital television are not recognized by a DVD player connected thereto, and signals from the remote control transmitter of the DVD player are not recognized by the digital television. Thus, a user playing DVD data must use two different remote control transmitters, which becomes burdensome, especially if the user operates the remote control transmitters with only the dominant hand.
Frequently, a user wants to add functionality to an existing digital content player, and the addition of functionality may require yet another remote control transmitter for complete wireless control of the system. For example, a user of digital television 10 may want to subscribe to a commercial cable programming provider, and, depending on the television and/or cable service, the user may need a separate remote control transmitter to play the cable programs. Clearly, it would be advantageous to be able to add accessories to the digital content player without needing to add an additional remote control transmitter for complete wireless operation of the system.
Advances in solid state electronics, which involve no physically-moving parts, make such technology desirable for use with digital content players, due in part to increased reliability, faster processing speed, and larger memory size. Thus, another functionality that a user may want to add to a digital content player is the ability to play digital data stored in a solid state memory of an attached accessory.
An example solid state memory device, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drive (UFD), has a relatively large memory size and a relatively small physical size. Such attributes are attractive for users wanting to transfer data without installing elaborate communication networks.
For example, a home personal computer may store a digital recording of a television program or a concert, or the personal computer may be linked to such a recording through the Internet. A user may want to copy the recording onto a UFD and then bring the UFD to a digital content player in another room or in another person's home. Copying the program onto a UFD and then plugging it into a digital content player elsewhere obviates the need to install a home network or to send the data to another home via the Internet. Both of these latter alternatives may not be practical in some situations.
A user wanting to play the digital content data stored on the UFD would likely want to be able to control the digital content player with a remote control transmitter. However, a modification of the digital content player to enable its remote control transmitter to play data stored on an UFD currently would be regarded as complex and expensive. Additionally, because manufacturers of digital content players and manufactures of solid state memory devices are often separate entities, the coordination required between the two entities to modify properly the existing technology would be anticipated as quite large and maybe prohibitive.
Thus, to the best knowledge of the present inventors, there remains an unmet need for a portable storage device that can accept large amounts of data and can transfer them to a digital content player under the control of the digital content player's remote control transmitter.